


the cold simmer

by drunkonwriting



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen, Slice of Life, Teikou Arc, could be read as pre-aokuro but there's no actual romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-07
Updated: 2015-05-07
Packaged: 2018-03-29 10:47:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3893527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drunkonwriting/pseuds/drunkonwriting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the story behind <i>you made tetsu angry. that's all.</i> from episode 35.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the cold simmer

**Author's Note:**

> i've always wondered how exactly aomine knows that making kuroko angry means he's going to annihilate kirisaki daiichi. like... he must have seen something right? to know that when kuroko gets angry, he gets really determined or hardcore or vicious or w/e. so this is my headcanon explanation for that backstory. 
> 
> set before kise comes into town, so like the second half of their first year, or really early into the second. haizaki's still on the team, nothing's fractured yet.

Ever since that first game, Tetsu’s been different. Daiki’s not really sure why—he thinks it might have something to do with what Akashi said to him, about being emotionless—but Tetsu doesn’t smile or cry as much as he used to and barely even shows any emotion on his face anymore. Of course, Tetsu was never as outgoing as some of them—even Daiki is more energetic—but it’s like he’s folded back all the things that he used to show. Reading him is a lot harder now than it used to be, although as they practice and practice together, Daiki gets used to it. 

The point is, he’s never really seen Tetsu get angry at someone before. Sure, he fights with Murasakibara sometimes, but most of the time, Tetsu’s the calmest among them except for Akashi. Even when they’re all fired up during a game, Tetsu keeps his head; it’s one of the things Daiki likes the most about him. So it’s odd when he comes in to practice early and hears Tetsu’s raised voice through the gym doors. 

“—hurt Sugawara-san in the last game you played with second string!”

“Tch, what’s it matter? We won, didn’t we?"

Daichi’s eyes narrow. Haizaki? He’s not sure about the others, but Daiki always tries to stop those two from being along together. Haizaki’s too bloodthirsty to leave unsupervised with someone like Tetsu, and Daiki may not be as bright as Akashi, but he notices the way Haizaki plays rough with Tetsu. And what the hell are they arguing about?

“When you needlessly injure your own teammates, it matters,” Tetsu says, going frosty. Daiki reels back in surprise - he’s never heard Tetsu sound like _that_ before. “Sugawara-san had to go to the hospital.”

Daiki blinks. He remembers hearing something about an injury during the last second-string scrimmage; a first-year had to go the hospital to get his ankle fracture checked out and put in a cast. He hadn’t given it much thought—accidents _do_ happen in basketball—but it sounds like Haizaki may have done it, if Tetsu’s to be believed. And Daiki will believe Tetsu over Haizaki any day. 

“It was the kid’s own fault for getting in my goddamn way!” Haizaki says. “Leave me the fuck alone, would you? You’re not the brat’s mother or the _captain_ so I don’t answer to you!”

“You should have more concern for the team you play with,” Tetsu says. 

Unlike Haizaki, with every word he speaks he gets calmer and calmer. But Daiki doesn’t exactly feel relaxed, hearing Tetsu sound like that. It reminds him of the way his mom sounds, when she’s actually angry - she gets all composed and formal and _devastatingly scary_.

Who knew tiny, harmless Tetsu could sound like that? 

“Just because Akashi took pity on you and let you on first string doesn’t mean I’m going to listen to you, brat,” Haizaki says. Daiki’s hands clench into fists, but he manages to restrain the impulse to burst in swinging. Tetsu wouldn’t want that. Tetsu always tries to protect himself, even when he doesn’t have to. It’s infuriating sometimes. “Just stay out of my way.”

Daiki hears footsteps and ducks for cover as Haizaki barrels out of the gym, grumbling under his breath. He doesn’t see Daiki, so Daiki creeps back to the slightly open gym door. He can’t hear movement inside so he creeps closer, peering through the open crack. Tetsu’s standing nearby, half-turned away from Daiki. His entire is body is tense the way it gets when he’s getting really riled up about a game or practices too hard.

“I’m sorry, Haizaki-kun,” he says, making Daiki jump. “I’m afraid I can’t do that for you.”

He turns and Daiki’s breath catches even as he makes a mad scramble to hide again. Tetsu passes him without a second glance, even though he’s the most observant out of all of them—he’s probably too distracted to pay much attention. As he watches Tetsu disappear down the hallway, Daiki thinks about the look on his face in that moment as he turned - tight-jawed, stern-mouthed, steel-eyed. Daiki’s never seen Tetsu look like that, even in their hardest games, even against their most frustrating opponents.

He’s not sure what Tetsu’s planning to do with Haizaki but even though Tetsu’s tiny and still a little pathetic, he actually feels a little bad for Haizaki. Daiki sure as hell wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of a Tetsu who looked like _that_.

* * *

 

Daiki keeps his ear to the ground, but it’s two weeks before Akashi sends Haizaki and Tetsu to work with second string again. All of them go, periodically - second string at Teikou is no joke, but it’s good to keep in practice in between tournaments, and it helps second string get stronger when they’ve got their competition in their midst. Of course, it also makes second string hate their guts, but Daiki’s pretty sure Akashi knows that and just doesn’t care.

Daiki invites himself along to their practice, which makes Tetsu give him an odd look, though he doesn’t protest. Akashi allows it when Daiki asks, and Daiki wonders just how much Akashi knows about what’s going on—Akashi always seems to know everything about them, it’s creepy as fuck. it’s also a little reassuring. Akashi cares about them, in his own, weird way, so if he hasn’t intervened, it must mean he has faith that Tetsu can settle this on his own. 

The second-stringers look a little freaked to see three of them there, but Daiki goes and settles in the stands to watch, so they calm down. They start a scrimmage game - Daiki watches, interested, as Tetsu talks to one of them and maneuvers his way onto the team against Haizaki’s. He’s going to get his revenge through basketball?

“All of you losers stay out of my way,” Haizaki says, sounding bored. “If I have to do this, might as well make it interesting.”

Most of the second-stringers are watching Haizaki, but Daiki’s eyes are fixed on Tetsu, so he notices the way Tetsu’s jaw clenches as Haizaki speaks, that same cold, steel-capped fury emerging for just a moment.

“Of course, Haizaki-kun,” Tetsu says, voice so chill that Daiki’s surprised Haizaki’s not suffering from frost bite. “I would hate to bore you.”

Haizaki’s not dumb either, but Tetsu’s slippery like an eel—until you get to know him well, it’s hard to get a firm grip on him. And Haizaki’s never tried to get to know Tetsu well.

“That’s the attitude, Kuroko,” he says, braying a laugh. “You should take after your senpai, brats.”

Tetsu’s smile is a serene, dangerous thing. “Please follow me closely,” he says to his team. “And if you could pass me the ball, that would be helpful.”

Most of the brats have worked with Tetsu before or seen him on the court, so none of them look as disbelieving about his first-string status as they did the first time he came to help them during practice. Still, they look from him to Haizaki and look doubtful. Probably they think Tetsu’s good enough with his team, but on his own he’d never be able to take a talented player like Haizaki. 

Daiki’s looking forward to seeing them eat that doubt. Tetsu clawed his way to first string, after all. Daiki will always bet on him overcoming the odds.

The game starts, but Tetsu, to Daiki's surprise, sits out for the first two quarters. His team is pretty good, though, and they manage to keep up even with Haizaki on the opposing side. Haizaki plays rough, though - he even knocks down one of his own teammates hard enough to leave a nasty bruise on the kid's elbow that Daiki can see from the stands. Daiki frowns. He’s all for winning, but it seems pointless to injure your teammates to do it. 

The first half ends with Haizaki's team twenty points ahead - respectable enough, considering the power difference. Daiki's thought about leaving a couple of times, but he can't shake the feeling that Tetsu's going to do _something_ in this game. The Tetsu he saw that night in the gym didn't look like the kind of guy to leave this sort of thing alone.

He sees Tetsu watching the bruised kid during the brief half-time break with all the serene patience of a snake eyeing its next meal. Sometimes Daiki thinks Akashi’s a bad influence - he can’t think of anyone else who could have taught Tetsu to look so _dangerous_ and _still_ when he’s angry. Hell, it’s strange to think of Tetsu being dangerous at all - he still barely comes up to Daiki’s collarbone, and he’s got all the muscles of a limp noodle. Although, Daiki thinks as he watches Tetsu re-enter the court, his shoulders and arms have gained sharp definition over the past few months, in a similar way to Midorima’s. Probably because Tetsu passes so much. His Ignite Kai requires some serious muscle-power, though Daiki’s never really thought about that much before.

Tetsu makes his move in the third quarter. If Satsuki or Akashi were here, they probably would’ve noticed Tetsu’s strategy right away - twenty points in the lead and Haizaki’s playing lazily, clearly confident in his win. Tetsu, apparently more vindictive than Daiki ever gave him credit for, decides to pull that confidence out from under him in one fell swoop.

In the span of ten minutes Daiki watches, eyes widening, as Tetsu steals, passes, and maneuvers his teammates until they make basket after basket. Every time Haizaki has his hand on the ball, Tetsu finds a way to get it, no matter what. Daiki notices that Haizaki’s other teammates aren’t getting the same hard treatment, but it’s only because of that that Haizaki’s team makes a single basket in the second quarter - by the time the half-time buzzer sounds, Tetsu’s team has pulled ahead by ten points.

"Oi, oi!" Haizaki barks out as they stop for a break between quarters. "What the hell is this, Kuroko?!"

Tetsu gives Haizaki a long look from under his eyelashes. "I'm sorry," he says. "Would you prefer I bring it down to your level?"

Daiki snickers into his hand as Haizaki gapes. Haizaki, clearly hearing him, throws him a poisonous look and stomps off to yell at his team. Tetsu looks over at him too and his frozen look melts a little into a small smile as Daiki throws him a thumbs-up. 

The fourth quarter begins and Daiki leans back, watching with a sort of amused awe as Tetsu continues his annihilation. He knows that Tetsu's been improving—hell, this is the kid who reworked the rules of basketball to become a formidable player—but it's still a little startling, to see the way he evades and maneuvers and straight-up out-plays Haizaki. He's never really watched Tetsu's passing from the outside before—he finds himself grinning a little when Tetsu slides between the ball and Haizaki, smacking it into the hands of one of his teammates. So that's what it looks like from the outside, huh? Not bad.

Then again, it's not like he didn't already know Tetsu's basketball was amazing.

He can see that Haizaki's getting more and more frustrated—he starts fouling his own teammates to try and get at the ball. Daiki doesn't like it much, but he's content to let Tetsu finish out the game in peace—until Haizaki, apparently starting to get used to Tetsu's misdirection, slams an elbow back just as Tetsu slides behind him to steal the ball, catching Tetsu hard in the stomach. Tetsu doubles over and Haizaki sinks a three-pointer—but Daiki doesn't really care, he's already off his ass and running.

"Tetsu!" he yells out, heedless of the way some of the second-string players are yelling at him as he runs onto the court. "Tetsu, are you—?" 

Tetsu looks up, blinking. "Aomine-kun…? What are you—no, stop, I'm fine—!" He bats Daiki's hands away as Daiki tries to help him straighten up.

Behind them, Daiki hears a laugh. Everything in him goes taunt, like a guitar string being tightened, and he turns, hand already making a fist, more than ready to punch this stupid bastard in the face, teammates or _no_ —

"Aomine-kun," Tetsu says and Daiki yelps as he gets a hard jab to the side that makes him drop his raised arm. 

"What the _fuck_ , Tetsu—!" he says, turning back, away from Haizaki's smug fucker face. 

"If you fight him, you'll get suspended," Tetsu reminds him. 

He's standing up straight again, but as he shifts from one foot he flinches minutely, and Daiki's rage blinds him for a moment.

"What if I don't fucking care, huh?" he asks.

"Aw, did I hurt your girlfriend, Aomine?" Haizaki asks. "You might as well pull him out, if you're so worried. I can show the rest of his team how to _really_ play basketball."

Daiki doesn't _care_ if he's going to get suspended, he's going to _punch this motherfucker_ —but then there's a hand, tight on his elbow, cool-fingered and surprisingly strong. Tetsu, of fucking course. Daiki turns, ready to tell Tetsu that he doesn't care about getting suspended and Akashi will probably let him get away with it anyway—and pauses when he sees Tetsu's face. The icy rage from before seems mild compared to the look Tetsu's wearing right now.

"There's no need for that," Tetsu says, voice more whisper than words, chill and serene. "Let's continue on, shall we?"

Haizaki's dumber than he looks, because he doesn't seem to realize how in danger he is. "Huh…? You still wanna play, shrimp? I guess I didn't teach you your lesson well enough, yeah?"

Tetsu lets Daiki go. "Yes," he says. "I'm quite hard-headed." Tetsu looks up at Daiki and some of the ice in his eyes melts. "Please go watch from the bleachers, Aomine-kun. This won't take long."

Daiki wants to protest, but he's still a little dazed, so he does as he's told for once. (Elsewhere, Momoi Satsuki gets a strange shudder down her spine.) He sits and he watches as they begin play again. Haizaki must have some brains somewhere, because he's playing more cautiously than before. Daiki doesn't think that's going to save him, though.

Tetsu's always been a shadow, even when his basketball was terrible. Now, though, it's as if he's truly a ghost—he appears and reappears, and sometimes Daiki can't even follow him. His expression is as still as a frozen lake. Daiki remembers that Akashi said that keeping your face expressionless helps lower your presence—perhaps that's why Tetsu's even better at misdirection than before. Whatever tolerance Haizaki built up that allowed him to nab Tetsu is completely gone.

Tetsu gets his team to make basket after basket. In those last seven minutes, Haizaki's team doesn't make a single point.

The score is 102 - 51 when the final buzzer sounds. Daiki stares at the scoreboard in a daze and thinks that somewhere along the line, Tetsu got really fucking scary.

"—little runt—!" 

Daiki jumps, coming back to himself. On the court, Haizaki has Tetsu by the scruff of his jersey. Tetsu, the stupid little punk, doesn't even look ruffled by the rough treatment, but Daiki's pretty sure Tetsu's got more guts than sense. He gets up, ready to intervene.

"Do you know why you lost, Haizaki-kun?"

"Don't give me that _bullshit_ , Kuroko—!"

"It's because you were selfish."

Silence falls across the court. All of the second-stringers look ready to shit their pants. Some of them are already edging away, ready to flee the gym at a moment's notice.

"You only wanted the ball for yourself," Tetsu says. He lifts his chin in the way he does when he's determined to succeed or getting stubborn. Daiki sees that look on the court all the goddamn time. "You wanted it so badly that you were willing to throw away your teammates for it. You don't play basketball alone, Haizaki-kun. If you try, you lose."

Haizaki shakes Kuroko like a fucking rag doll, and Daiki's had _enough_. He stomps over and grabs Haizaki's shoulder, wrenching his arm so hard that he howls in pain and drops Kuroko like a hot iron. 

"You fucking—!"

"Get the fuck out of here, Haizaki," Daiki says. Tetsu's right, as usual. He doesn't want to be suspended. "You lost, get over it."

Haizaki glares from him to Tetsu, then sneers. "Don't think your pussy-ass way of playing basketball is going to win you anything, Kuroko," he says. "You can skip through the flowers and sing teamwork all you want—it's _talent_ that wins games, not the power of friendship. You'll realize that soon enough."

He stomps away, through a crowd of panicked second-stringers. Tetsu sighs a little, rubbing absently at his ribs.

"Haizaki-kun packs a mean punch," he says, sounding disgruntled.

Daiki suddenly wants to shake him too. "He would've _kicked your ass_ , Kuroko, I can't _believe_ you picked a fight with him—!"

Kuroko makes the closest thing to a pout that he's capable of. "But he was wrong. And being stupid."

"If the guy is _twice as big as you_ , then just let him be stupid! Or let me handle it instead!"

"But Aomine-kun would've gotten in trouble if he got into a fight."

"It would've been _worth_ it—!"

"Kuroko-senpai?"

They both turn. One of the second-stringers stands there, a kid who'd been on Kuroko's team. Tiny, just like him, and scraggly-looking. With both of their attention on him, he blushes to his roots. 

"I wanted…" He coughs. "I wanted to thank you, for helping us beat Haizaki-san."

Daiki snorts. "Help you?" he asks, a little scornful. "He basically won the game for you—"

"Aomine-kun."

Daiki's mouth clicks shut and he glowers at Tetsu, but Tetsu just gives him a long, fond look before he turns back to the kid.

"You're welcome," he says. The kid brightens. "I apologize for his actions from before, as his teammate."

"Sugawara's doing much better now," the kid says. "He'll be happy to hear about today's practice! And, uhm. We really appreciate it, Kuroko-senpai."

To Daiki's astonishment, the kid bows, really low, as if Tetsu's some sort of CEO or the Emperor or someone. Tetsu looks just as flummoxed, but the kid sprints off before he can say anything, leaving them to blink at his retreating back.

"Huh," Daiki says. "I still say that was pretty stupid of you."

Tetsu sighs. "Well," he says, "I can't just leave doing stupid things to Aomine-kun."

"Hey!"

* * *

 

The next day, Akashi asks how practice was with a glint in his eye that says he already knows exactly how it went.

"I heard Haizaki's team lost by fifty points," he says casually.

On the court, a few yards away, Midorima drops his basketball. The wide-eyed look he directs at Tetsu is the funniest thing Daiki's seen all day.

"Haizaki-kun was overconfident," Tetsu says, not looking at Akashi. "And selfish. I'm sure in the future, he'll be more careful."

Tetsu's not looking, but Daiki sees the way that Akashi examines Tetsu's bent head, mouth curling into a smug, small smile. He looks almost pleased. 

"Yes," Akashi says. "I'm sure he will be, Tetsuya."

Daiki looks between them and decides that he somehow ended up on a team full of tiny, impossibly scary people. At the very least, he thinks as he starts laps, he learned one thing from this whole situation. He's never _ever_ going to piss Tetsu off.  He gets fucking _scary_ when he's mad.

**Author's Note:**

> honestly, i'm not sure that kuroko would be developed enough to kick haizaki's ass like this, but let's just... pretend that he was, shall we?
> 
> a final note: please don't use the word 'pussy' to describe a 'weak' thing. haizaki does this because he's a sexist dick.


End file.
